Okay, I know some of you are following the cloth experiment, so let me catch you up. I waited patiently after Charlotte's rash to receive the laundry detergent I ordered off the internet. My choice was
Allens Naturally. While it was not cheap for my 32oz bottle ($14.50 + shipping), I washed my first load in our HE washer yesterday and the 1/4 oz. (1.5 tsp) had me doing several extra rinses - next time I am going to try just 1 tsp. This stuff is going to last forever!
Since I had everything washed and cleaned, I thought I'd post a picture of my stash. One of my Bummis (the flowered one, boo!) is going back to Cotton Babies because the Velcro tab came unstitched after a couple of uses and two washes. Hopefully, they handle the exchange OK since I washed it. But seriously! It shouldn't fall apart like that. The wipes are just cheap washcloths from Target. I figure why spend a lot of money on "real cloth wipes" when a washcloth should work just as well.
Wish me luck as we go back into cloth today! If all goes well this week, I will fill out my stash, probably with the bulk of it in the BumGenius One Size pocket diaper, but with some AIOs as well. I might even throw in a Blueberry Minky (will post a pic if I do) and a NEW One Size AIO organic from BumGenius. Don't tell Fred though - those are more expensive splurges ;-). I'm also going to need some Diaper pail liners and wet bags to store my dirty diapes.
My current assessment of the cloth diaper experiment? Current innovations in cloth diapers make them almost as convenient as disposable diapers. The biggest differences can be narrowed down to extra laundry and poop.
Poop, by far, marks the major concern most people have,"What about the poop?" While I may stand alone, as a parent, I feel more comfortable with poop than I ever imagined I could. I feel like I've cleaned it off of almost any surface imaginable. (See this post:
Poopy Explosion) Almost every one of her earlier outfits had poop on it at some point. Cleaning it off of a cloth diaper, therefore, isn't much different.
With an exclusively breast-fed newborn (no formula or solids), there is no need to even worry about the poop. Since only liquid goes in, everything that comes out is water-soluble. A first wash on cold removes all the mess in the wash, no problem.
With a formula fed baby, or baby who eats solid food, the poop needs to go down the toilet. Two things can make this easier (1) a rice paper liner in the diaper or (2) a kitchen-sink like diaper sprayer attached to the water line to the toilet. The rice paper liner catches the poop and can be tossed into the toilet, keeping most of the poop off the diaper. A diaper sprayer can be purchased or homemade and installed on the toilet to spray poop from the diaper into the toilet.
All in all, I am not a huge fan of the modern take on old-fashioned cloth - the prefold closed with a snappi (instead of safety pins) and covered with a wrap style cover (instead of plastic pants!). They fit with a lot of bulk, which I am unaccustomed to with disposable diapers. I don't mind using them around the house because they are inexpensive and I can use the pockets and all in one diapers when we go out and about. The AIOs and Pockets allow for a trimer fit without over-bulking Charlotte's pants.
The All-in-Ones and Pocket diapers give the ease of disposables with the advantages of cloth. They are, by far, my favorite.
The only reason I can see myself picking something that isn't a pocket or traditional AIO? The pockets have suedecloth or microfleece up against baby's bum; allowing moisture to pass through them to the soaker underneath and keeping the baby dry. Unfortunately, some babies have a sensitivity to the synthetic fiber. If Charlotte proves to be one of those babies, I will need to rethink my purchases to include only natural fibers against her tooshie. There are other options that I haven't gone into at all, such as fitted and contoured (natural fiber) cloth diapers - which need covers but fit trimmer than a prefold.
Wow, this was going to be a short, quick, post to show off my stash. I hope that anyone who is on the fence about cloth diapering will garnish information they need from my blog, and that my ramblings won't go unheard. My suggestion to those toying with the idea of cloth? Make a $100 investment in a day's worth of cloth diapers - including something SUPER EASY to use, and give it a try. I know my readership extends beyond people I know personally, but feel free to ask a question in the comments.
